


A Cold Dish

by ShimadaGenji



Category: Naruto
Genre: ?? - Freeform, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Hatake Kakashi-centric, Kidnapping, Torture, Violence against Children, a divergence on kannabi bridge, capture by enemy, suicide intention (sort of), team minato only mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-29
Updated: 2020-02-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:54:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22946623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShimadaGenji/pseuds/ShimadaGenji
Summary: Kakashi gets captured during his first mission as a jounin.The Hatake have many enemies
Comments: 7
Kudos: 131





	A Cold Dish

**Author's Note:**

> Please read the tags before reading!!   
> I wanted a fic with kid kakashi and chiyo interacting but ended up writting more abt the lead to it than the actual encounter. I have no idea how I’d continue this but decided to post anyway.  
> Hope you enjoy some pain sjsjsj

It all started in the kannabi bridge mission.

The first days had been tense, but uneventful. Kakashi, Rin and Obito threaded silently through enemy territory, avoiding traps and convoys as they went. Unfortunately they were detected at some point, and eventually attacked.

Kakashi had given Obito orders to stick around Rin and protect her at all costs, and unsheathed his father’s tantou. Rin needed to be well, after all, in case any of them ended up injured. 

That is, if they all made it out alive. 

Kakashi was set on fulfilling his duty as a Jounin though, and so he fought quickly and effectively, clashing blades with the enemy. He could feel the heat coming from behind him, where Obito used his clan’s fireball jutsu to draw another enemy away. And Kakashi’s fight extended, and Obito and Rin kept their defenses up. A second of distraction and Kakashi’s fight turned into two against one, with both Iwa nin turning on him to attack as a duo. And from there, it took only seconds for Kakashi to start losing his footing. 

Between two enemies with unknown abilities and two vulnerable teammates, Kakashi found his attention divided. And then his head bloomed in pain.

And then he woke up.

His face was pressed against the cold rocks of a cavern. His nose told him he must still be in the same forest he was last time he was still conscious, and the faint coldness hitting his face told him he didn’t have his mask on. A shift of his body and he noticed that both his arms and legs were tied up.

He felt his entire body freezing up.

He tried moving his head around, breathing slowly. He couldn’t see much other than he was indeed in a cave and that someone was standing guard near. He couldn’t feel nor smell Rin or Obito anywhere. That was good. They had an objective to complete. It wouldn’t do for them to get captured as well. They would probably get hurt. Kakashi should figure his way out on his own. He told himself, despite the dread that threatened to escape his guts and pour into his whole body.

Kakashi tried looking closer at his guard. The man pulled things from a bag, setting them on his own pockets or throwing them on the floor. When the man pulled a tri-pronged kunai, Kakashi realized it was his bag the man was going through. He remained silent as the man examined the gift, turning it around and reading the kanji carefully. 

Another man walked into Kakashi’s view, throwing a curious glance his way. Kakashi frowned back.

“Kakkou...Why is there a brat squirming around in here?” The shinobi said, Iwa hitai-ate tied to his forehead. The man holding Kakashi’s backpack turned to look at him, and Kakashi now recognized him as the bladed shinobi he fought before.

He shrugged.

“Not my idea.”

The other one sighed.

“We don’t have any means to keep goddamn hostages, and a kid like that’s pretty much useless.”

Kakkou shrugged again, and in one swift motion, used his blade to break the grip of Minato’s kunai, kanji of the seal cracked through.

Kakashi started feeling real fear, even as he scolded his face into a controlled frown.

The man was right. Kakashi was no use to an enemy. His skills couldn’t be used for their advantage like a medic nin’s would. The only thing he had to offer were supplies, that had already been stripped off him, and information about his mission. They had no way of knowing Kakashi was a jounin, and they certainly would think it easier to just search for Obito and Rin and finish them off as well then to torture that information out of him.

Or not.

Sweat collected on Kakashi’s skin.

He was a jounin though, he had to be ready for this. It was his duty. If they hurt him, he wouldn’t break. And if he were to break… they certainly wouldn’t waste medical supplies on him if he were to bite his own… His thoughts stopped short, another wave of cold shivers washing over his body. Throat clogged up in the still air of the cave.

“Wait. Is this the kid that killed Mahiru?”

Kakkou hummed.

“And you’re keeping him?”

“Again, not my idea.”

The man huffed.

“Alright, if you two are too moral to do it.” The man that had walked in stepped his way closer to Kakashi. Kakashi jerked his body away, trying to get into a sitting position and dislodge his arms from the ropes around them. But his efforts yielded no results. The man simply approached and grabbed him by the neck, squeezing tightly, and suddenly Kakashi’s head started feeling tight and hot as his air supply was cut off. He wiggled his arms and kicked away desperately, fighting for just one more instant. He thought the man would end up breaking his neck before he suffocated.

He still didn’t want to die.

“Hands off the goods.” He heard a new voice come in.

Less than a second later, the pressure let off and he coughed, air quickly running in and out of his lungs, burning through his throat and sending painful jolts to every wound he sported.

“Taiseki? Seriously?” His almost murderer spoke. “Kid can’t be older than 12, you’re a sick man.” He threw a grimace at Kakashi and he shuddered, thinking what could make a man that wasn’t afraid of killing said 12 year old feel pity.

“That’s not it, idiot.” This Taiseki grunted. Kakashi recognized this one too. He was in the fight, the man who could turn invisible. “Can’t you see the resemblance?” He asked, gesturing at Kakashi. 

Kakashi’s almost murderer looked at him once again, searching for something.

“No. What am I looking for?”

The nin sighed.

“White hair, white chakra, a tantou. That’s the White Fang’s brat.”

Kakashi bristled at the mention of his father. Blessed, or cursed once again by his lineage.

Kakkou took Sakumo’s tantou out of Kakashi’s bag, showing it to the confused man.

“Huh… I guess he does look like the man… Thought he died or something though. No one has seen him in a few years, no?”

“I heard he deserted. Fucked off to spend his war money on whores, paid to start a war and run.” Kakkou snickered. And Kakashi watched, sickened as he laughed, handling his heirloom without a care in the world.

“You’re gonna try to negotiate with the White Fang?” 

“No.” The invisible nin answered. “No one knows what happened to the White Fang, he’s probably dead by now. I do know someone who has been chasing off Hatake blood, and willing to pay a good price for it, though.”

“Who?”

“The woman of the puppets in Suna.” 

“The crazy old lady with the poisons?” The bladed man asked surprised. He laughed. “Shit, now I feel bad for the kid.” 

Kakashi shuddered.

“Don’t. It’s what war looks like.”

—

Kakashi spent his time in absolute silence. His body shivered and he felt hot and cold and clammy, but he shoved past his panic that grew every minute he did not manage to free himself. He moved his limbs until they chaffed painfully, he tried drawing out chakra and cutting through, but the rope seemed to be made of something especially resistant. It wasn’t a knot he could get out of with any usual technique and the rope was too strong to be cut by anything Kakashi could reach (that being the rocky floor).

The hours ticked by and Kakashi tried what he could, and when his shifting started making noise, that Kakkou would walk off his post and kick him into silence. Not feeling very patient with someone who murdered his teammate.

The sunlight went out and Kakashi remained tied in the complete darkness of his confinement. Eyelids feeling heavy but eyes open and alert, despite him not being able to see a thing. Whenever his body almost betrayed him into sleep, he’d jolt awake, head searching the place wildly.

They didn’t feed him once during the whole day, he was tired from all the walking, the fighting, and the beating he took.

His mouth remained free of any binds. But every time Kakashi thought of what he had to do as a shinobi his entire body would stiffen up and his lungs would get tight and he’d stare at nowhere as his heart raced. Thinking about his father.

The next day, they gave him a bowl of soup. He took it. He wondered if Obito and Rin managed to get their mission done by now. They had to, the enemy was with him after all. Unless they had been ambushed by someone else. Or even defeated by those same men while Kakashi was out. No, he was sure they’d try to at least take Rin in, right? Medic nin were so important in a war. But none of the men ever mentioned them, or Kannabi Bridge, or anything else for that matter around Kakashi.

Truth be told, he had no idea of what happened to his teammates or his mission.

At one point they knocked him out again, and when he came to he wasn't in a cave anymore, but in a cell so small it might as well have been a repurposed broom closet. 

With no windows and a closed door, Kakashi’s perception of time was lost. He ran his still tied hands through every inch of floor and wall he could, looking for a single weakness in his prison but found nothing. He noticed his chakra had something sealing it when he tried calling onto it and felt only an awful burn surge through his limbs. He wondered where Minato-sensei was now as well.

—

He started counting the days by the food he’d get. By the pain in his body each time he received a bowl of soup, he’d guess he was being fed a bowl a day.

So it was four days until they moved him again. 

They reinforced the binds in his arms and tied a longer rope in several loops around him, keeping his arms flat against his back, and end of the rope left loose to be held by the enemy and to lead him like a leash on a dog. 

How ironic for him.

He stumbled on his own feet, through his exhaustion, two iwa-nin leading the way.

“God, I hate Suna. Too dry, too much sand, gets everywhere.”

“Just shut up and do your job so we can go back to the usual senseless standing around.”

“Oh, can’t wait to.”

So they really were headed to Suna.

Kakashi really was sold to someone in Suna who was after Hatake blood.

Now, outside of the walls of his cell, Kakashi had the best shot at managing to escape. But he felt so tired, just the act of walking made his muscles protest. 

There wasn’t any other option anyway.

So he waited, walking behind the two ninja, paying close attention for an opportunity, one chance to escape.

A few hours into their travel, Kakashi gave into his exhaustion for a moment, tripping and tumbling down with an “oof” as his body hit the dirt. He was quick to roll enough to hide away from view the stray kunai he dug from under the leaves he spotted before, tucking it under his clothes.

“Get up.” One of the nin demanded, pulling on the rope and painfully dragging Kakashi a bit. He grunted, getting back on his knees. Unfortunately, getting up wasn’t as easy as falling down. Still, he felt jittery with anticipation now that he had his hands on  _ something. _

“Shouldn’t we give him some water or something?” He heard one of the men mumble.

“He’s fine. We’ll give it to him when we stop to rest.”

And, thankfully, none of them bothered to check up on him.

He thought of freeing himself while they walked, but getting ahold of the blade was already hard to do with the binds on, and he was afraid they’d see something if they turned around to glance at him. He was also afraid he might drop the blade and the opportunity would be lost.

So he waited once more, until it was night and they stopped to sleep.

The man holding onto Kakashi’s rope approached him, tugging him towards a tree. He walked behind Kakashi, and for a terrifying second, the kid thought the man would see the kunai tucked inside his pants. But the man kept moving and simply tied the rope to one of the thicker branches of the tree, leaving just a couple steps of movement for Kakashi. The man pushed him down, making him fall to the ground, and left to join his partner in setting up camp.

Kakashi adjusted himself, sitting up and getting his back closer to the tree.

And then he got to work.

It took him a bit to get a grip on the handle, and longer to manage to twist the kunai so the blade rested against his restraints. He could only move his fingers to force it to move up and down, and by the way the kunai would jump and bump around as he moved, he knew it was duller than he’d like it to be. 

He almost jumped when he heard a voice, head snapping up to the nin. He knew he was inside their field of view, but none of them were looking at him. They were preparing their meal and chatting amongst themselves.

Kakashi hurried up.

And after some time he felt the first piece of rope give in. 

He moved his arms and managed a lot more movement than before, feeling pins in needles as he bent his wrists a bit and stretched them out. He also got a much firmer grip onto the kunai.

The men kept chatting as they ate.

The next bit of rope was easier to cut with the added movement, and soon he could pull both his forearms away from his body, even if just a bit, the cold air hitting the sweat that collected there.

Just a few more pieces of rope.

He kept hacking blindly, feeling a sting whenever the blade accidentally caught on his arms or back instead of rope.

He saw one of the men sigh and get up from his seat.

He bent over to pick something up and turned around to walk in Kakashi’s direction.

Kakashi froze.

He did all he could to keep his breathing normal and his expression unfazed.

The man stared him down, holding a plate of leftovers.

“You stink.” He mumbled to Kakashi.

Kakashi’s heart hammered, but he kept silent.

“Whatever. I got your food. Try anything funny and you’re not getting it.”

It was too late for that.

The man grabbed onto the ropes around Kakashi and pulled up, trying to get him to stand.

What the man didn’t know was that with Kakashi's handiwork, the whole thing was much looser than it should be. And as soon as he tugged them up, they only lifted Kakashi a bit before slipping up, off from the kid, dropping him down, and making the man accidentally yank the destroyed ropes up and away.

“What the hell?” The man exclaimed surprised, holding the empty loops of rope tied to the tree.

Kakashi still had the chakra suppressant ropes around his wrist behind his back and a kunai.

Kakashi kicked the plate up, watching it hit the man’s face as he yelped in surprise. He then planted a foot firmly in the man’s midriff, flipping around and bringing his heel against the man’s chin. They both felt to the floor groaning. Kakashi was faster to recover, and before the man could make it to grab him, he twisted around and planted the kunai through the man’s thigh.

He screamed.

But that was Kakashi’s mistake.

Perhaps if he had turned to run instead of making that last attack, he wouldn’t have lost his grip on the kunai and lost his only means of freeing himself.

Perhaps the other man, still standing by the fire wouldn’t have had enough time to react and make an earth jutsu to bring Kakashi down.

Perhaps he wouldn’t have been captured again.

“You piece of shit!” The man screamed, stepping on Kakashi’s head and forcing him to choke on the dirt.

He pulled the kunai from his leg.

“This shit’s disgusting! I could get sick!” He punctuated his anger by stepping on Kakashi again.

Kakashi swallowed back a cry.

He felt dizzy.

The man grabbed his binds and dragged him. He pulled his arms a bit and Kakashi tried to figure out what he was doing through the nausea.

He found out soon enough.

The man tied his wrists behind his back to another rope and threw it over a branch of the tree.

At least that's what he figured out when the man pulled on the rope down, lifting Kakashi off the floor.

This time Kakashi screamed.

The pain coursed through his entire body. His arms feeling like they’d pop off the sockets, burning painfully as they held up his weight. Tears sprang to his eyes and bile to his throat as he scrambled to stop the pain.

He managed to get his toes on the floor, standing with only the front part of his foot touching the floor, the pain dying down a bit as he leaned some of his weight on his legs.

If he lowered himself any more than that, the burning would climb up his arms again unforgivably.

“Let’s see how you sleep like that, prick.”

The man walked away, back to his camping spot to treat his wounds. 

And left Kakashi like that.

After an hour of standing in that position, Kakashi’s legs wouldn’t stop shaking and tears gathered up in his eyes. Whenever he got too tired and his legs started giving out, his arms would get pulled by his weight and the unbearable pain would force him to try to stand up again.

He stood like that for hours.

When the sun started coming back up, the men disassembled the camp and untied him from the tree.

They tried to get him to move, but his legs just wouldn’t hold him up anymore. When even dragging him couldn’t get him to move they slung him over a shoulder and he finally passed out, forced to wake up hours later and walk on his own.

Kakashi didn’t try escaping again.

  
  


\-----------

  
  


They kept walking until the scenery changed gradually from a dense forest to sand up to where the eyes could see.

Suna was truly hot.

The sun burned down on him and his eyes watered as the harsh light reflected on the thin sand beneath his feet. He missed the humidity of Konoha, he missed the grass and the fresh air. He missed his house and he missed his team.

He was snapped out of his thoughts when they approached a small collection of houses made out of stone. They approached a building and one of the shinobi knocked.

“Lady Chiyo?” He called. “We have your package.” 

Kakashi frowned at the man, who didn’t even spare a glance.

They waited for a few seconds, and then an older woman walked out of the house. Black robes slung over her body. She looked at the shinobi and then at Kakashi. Face freezing at the sight.

“That is a child.”

“Yes, Sakumo Hatake’s son. As promised.”

“You…” She stopped herself, harsh gaze falling on Kakashi again. Kakashi couldn’t properly translate the emotions in her eyes, but whatever it was, it started drawing shivers from him.

“You never told he was so young.”

“That’s not our problem. Your part of the deal now, Lady Chiyo.”

She stood still for a few long moments, looking at none of them.

After a while she finally moved, drawing a crate from inside the building and handing it over to the shinobi. Clearly displeased. They opened the thing and checked its contents quickly.

“That will be all. We’re glad to be doing business with you.” He bowed and took the crate, handing the rope tied to Kakashi to the old lady. The Iwa nin then shunshin’d away.

And Kakashi was left with Lady Chiyo. The name wasn’t really familiar to him.

She stared him down, and Kakashi defiantly held her hateful eyes, despite the tired, shallow breaths his lungs drew.

Her fist tightened around the rope.

She turned around and headed into the building, tugging Kakashi along.

As they walked, Kakashi noticed an assortment of plants and other goods used in the crafting of medicine and poison, but the further they walked into the building, the less plants he’d see and the more wood would be hanging from walls and ceiling, thrown on tables, carved into limbs and puppets. Kakashi suppressed a shudder.

They walked until she stood in front of a big puppet in a white cloak.

She stared at it in silence for several minutes, leaving him to his own thoughts, before finally addressing him.

“What’s your name?”

Kakashi didn’t answer.

She waited.

“How old are you?” She asked, almost mockingly, still having his back to him.

Kakashi once more remained silent.

She finally turned around, looking at him properly.

“Aren’t you afraid? You're at the hands of an enemy.Alone. At my mercy.”

“Shinobi don’t fear anything.” He answered on reflex, voice cracking slightly from disuse.

“So you do speak.” She either scoffed or laughed. “You call yourself a shinobi?”

“I’ve done my service for my village, and I’ll continue to do so as I live.” 

“You talk big words for someone whose voice hasn’t even broken out yet.” She mocked him, and Kakashi snarled at the comment.

“You know nothing of being a shinobi, kid. Of duty to one’s village, of the horrors of the world. Has your dear  _ father _ told you of those?” She growled the word with the same hatred Kakashi would often feel directed at him. He bristled, anger building up inside him.

“I’m not my father. I will never be like him. I’ll be a good sh-“ he stopped suddenly, eyes going wide with realization. Captured in the hands of the enemy, tied up and lost. Kakashi had already failed. 

Kakashi failed his mission.

He was already scum, and he was paying for it.

“A good what, huh? A good shinobi? Another little murderer for this awful world? What good have you done for your village? What good have you done for anyone, in that matter?”

“I’m not who he was!” He argued, teeth clenched tightly.

She moved her arms and suddenly the puppet behind her seemed to gain life of his own, circling around her and floating just behind her like a guardian angel. The puppet grabbed a blade that laid on a nearby table and in a swift movement, dashed for him. He barely had time to react, lifting his wrists to try to defend himself. The puppet cut through the rope tying Kakashi’s hands together and dropped the blade on the floor. Kakashi could feel his chakra flowing once again, as little as he had.

Then, the puppet’s own arm twisted, forearm replaced by another long blade.

“Prove it to me. Fight for your village right now. Fight for your worth. I’ll warn you though, a single slice from my puppet's blade and the poison will kill you in 30 seconds.”

She stared at him hard.

“Prove you’re good.”

Kakashi quickly darted for the blade, grabbing it off the floor and putting some distance between himself and the woman with the puppet. Freed for the first time in who knows how long.

This woman was mad, proposing such a fight. Giving Kakashi the means to escape. But somehow, Kakashi didn’t feel like the odds were stacked in his favor.

The woman still stared him down. 

A quick glance and he could see a window. Maybe he could outrun the puppet. Maybe not… He did not think he had the chakra to do even a single substitution.

He had to fight for his life.

He shifted his feet and the puppet answered by moving in his direction. Kakashi laid the flat of the blade along his forearm and raised it to parry the first strike that came for him. The loud clang seemed to resonate through his entire body, underfed and under rested. He spun his body and brought the sword against the puppet’s torso, watching it scrape through wood.

Of course. Puppets are not deterred by pain. 

He dashed away just as the puppet brought its arm down again, missing the boy narrowly. Kakashi breathed in deeply, forcing his vision to catch up with what was happening and moved again, purely out of instinct to keep out of harm’s way.

The lady. He had to reach the lady. But every move he made was mirrored by the puppet and every chance he had was quickly lost as he was forced to get back into a defensive position.

He knew that with every second he wasted, every block he performed, his chances of survival just got slimmer and slimmer. His breathing was ragged and his arms felt strangely numb.

He realized he really didn’t want to die.

The puppet attacked again, a swipe overhead. Kakashi raised his sword and watched in horror as the weapon was thrown away from his grip into the floor. Kakashi’s eyes followed it down, and then followed the puppet’s blade up as it slashed towards his face.

He couldn’t help the yelp that left his mouth as it made a clear cut through his left eye.

He  _ really _ didn’t want to die.

He fell to the floor, hand instinctively coming to cover the wound, red hot blood covering his fingers. His entire face started numbing.

He never proved himself. He was still a disgrace, he left nothing of himself behind and he couldn’t even tell sensei how sorry he was for fucking it all up.

Kakashi got into his knees, heart beating wildly, blood pumping to his ears.

He felt like an idiot.

The lady stared harshly at him.

What did he do wrong?

_ Why _ were they looking at him like that?

Kakashi gritted his teeth and steeled himself, hands shaking as he splayed his fingers out.

He breathed in deeply and his hair stood up as he started making the hand seals.

He probably had only a few seconds left.

He might as well make the best of it.

Kakashi gripped his right wrist tightly through the numbness that spread to his entire body. He gritted his teeth tighter, focusing on that burn from within. The snaps and crackle of his chakra.

The lady’s eyes widened.

The room became filled with static.

Kakashi dashed. 

The puppet barely moved, and it wouldn’t have mattered. Kakashi’s arm broke through it as naturally as it was meant to be, lightning firing out his fingertips.

There was the light snap of chakra lines as he kept moving forward.

There wasn’t even time for the puppet to hit the floor.

Kakashi wished he had seen surprise in the lady’s eyes. Had seen anything at all. But his vision blacked out even as his body moved.

And he never knew if he hit her or not.

  
  


——

Chiyo stood motionless, rooted in the same spot she had begun the fight.

She knew she was being cruel, but cruelty was just what made shinobi be. It was inevitable. You lost, and you took, so they’d lose and take as well. 

Chiyo  _ was  _ supposed to be cruel. But she also didn’t expect a child to be delivered to her.

She stood at that same spot the kid didn’t quite reach, lightning and fury dying down less than an arm’s length from her chest.

This one looked nothing like her grandson. Different eyes, different hair, different voice. Chiyo would love to inflict the same kind of pain to Sakumo Hatake as he had inflicted her. 

But Chiyo looked at the scrawny kid that laid asleep at her feet, downed by her anesthetics and wondered why she didn’t.


End file.
